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Cost of College

Is College Only for the Wealthy?When dropping my sister off at college many thoughts ran through my head. Thinking that she was no longer going to be at home, and that she was beginning a new chapter in her life struck me as odd. In the many thoughts I had, I did not think about how much her new chapter in life was going to cost my family. It did not hit me until we finished moving her into her dorm room and we went to the university book store to pick up her books. This was my first realization of how expensive college is. The costs of all her books for the coming semester came to a total around $500. I could not believe that this was just the beginning. In addition to the cost of books, students are required to pay for room and board, a meal plan, and the tuition.

The increasing cost of college is causing many student to stop their education after receiving their high school diploma. According to College Board, “The average cost of a four year college is $7, 605 per semester.” Once the costs of books, food, room and board have been added into the cost of tuition, the total can be anywhere between nine to eleven thousand dollars. A four-year state college, which is often one’s last resort, cost about nine thousand dollars or more to attend. Unless a student earns an athletic or academic scholarship, college is a very costly investment. Often, students are required to take out multiple loans to help pay for their tuition which can sometimes take up to five years to pay back. As of today, the most expensive college in the United States is Sarah Lawrence College. This private college comes with the hefty price tag of $57,556 per year. Sarah Lawrence is followed by the well known Ivy League school, Columbia University, which costs around “$43,815 for tuition and fees and another $10,572 for room and board” (Wingfield). With costs like these for an education, college will soon be a privilege for only the elite and wealthy. The amount of money expected to be...

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Student loan debts are, for the first time in history, exceeding what Americans owe on credit cards—over $1 trillion (Sullivan, 2012, para. 1). For many, the rising cost of college may not be just a news headline, but a real life let down. The core of the problem: tuition and fees at public universities have surged almost 130 percent over the last 20 years, while middle class incomes have idled. (Censky, 2011, p. 1)
Endless Cycle
Many Americans are not being able to further their education because the cost is too high, which results in having to settle for a poorly paying job. Then when they start a family, they do not have enough money to send their children to college. It really is an endless cycle of an ever-growing lower and middle class. The number of college graduates is becoming less every year because of the increasing rate of tuition, room and board, and fees. At the same...

...high-achieving high-school seniors in the bottom quarter of family income went to one of the 238 most selective colleges, compared with 78 percent of students from the top quarter (Markell). Certainly, these numbers show that students that come from low income families aren’t getting the opportunities that they deserve. With collegecosts going nowhere but up, students from low-income families face tough decisions. Some students choose to attend community college while some make the decision to take out additional loans. There are also those who choose to drop out because they can no longer sustain the cost of college. Those who don’t have the money to go to a selective college are often not reaching their full potential. Therefore, collegecost should be lowered so that more people can have the opportunity to get higher education.
Such a push is needed; firstly, due to the continuous rise in tuition, higher education is becoming less and less affordable for low-income students. According to the Journal of College Admission, from 1982 to 2007, college tuition and fees increased by 439 percent, while median family income increased by 147 percent. Last year, the net cost at four-year public universities amounted to 28 percent of median family income, while a four-year private college or...

...﻿March 02, 2014
Erika Ochoa
ESL 1021
Is the cost of college too high?
100 % of the people in the world will like to go to college but only 1% of people in the world can go
to college because the rest cant afford it, due to the expense.
Many countries have the benefit to help students and so far only 3 countries in the world offered a free
education and those are Sweden, Ireland and Finland.
Nowdays, the cost of college is out of control the average kid or jonger adult who want to go to
school unfornately you cant affort it, because is too much and the amount of money you can make with
out having a college degree is very low and is not enough to pay the tuition, fees, books and the housing
which in most cases children end living with their parents due to their income.
If students are lucky enough to have the money to go to college it can still be difficult for them to get a
job if they are up against a student who went to a higher priced college. Quality can be confused with
cost.
Why don’t colleges charge everyone the same rate? Why does it matter what state you are from? Or
what country? Books cost the same. Desks cost the same. It costs the same for lights and heat no
matter...

...﻿Jamie Ratzlaff
Ms Weeks
English 121
15 February 2014
College Tuition Fees are becoming to High
“College Tuition rates are 2 ½ times over the inflation rate at an average of 59,8005 dollars” according to Steve Odland, a professor at Lynn University who received a baa from Norte Dame University. If post-secondary education were in fact growing at the same pace, as the inflation rate, tuition would be 383,000 dollars less than it is presently. Are there other alternatives are available such as scholarships, grants, and loans? Yes; however, the competitive field to receive scholarships, loans, and grants is quite difficult to obtain, because there is to many people and not enough space causing prices to increase dramatically. Several middle-class and lower class American citizens feel that tuition costs are expensive, and like myself, are taking advantage of early college programs to receive credit and lessen their debts in the future. These programs allow high school students to receive an associate’s degree while attending high school and working towards their high school diploma. Colleges have been around for centuries such as Harvard established sixteen years after the pilgrims landed on North America and Charity School of Philadelphia established by Benjamin Franklin. The style of education differs back then compared to the system we have now, however these two systems altered a tremendous...

...
CollegeCosts and Prices
One thing that is stressed the most in today's society is a college education. Not only do parents want their children to have one, something that is even more stressed is the price we pay to obtain one. Something that needs to be understood is the difference between collegecosts and college prices. Collegecosts refer to what the institutions spend on education and related services, while college prices are what the students and their families are charged for a higher education along with the money that actually comes from their pockets (Geller viii). Is what we receive from a college education worth what we pay for? Some say yes, and some say no. It really all comes down to how much one has to pay for schooling, how much they can afford to pay, how much one has to pay after they graduate, and how much they get paid. There are many ways to lower the price that is paid for college. One just has to know how to do it in advance and be fully prepared for the work that it requires. In the end, a college education will be worth it.
According to Dr. Howard Rothmann Bowen, the costs of college tend to get higher as students climb up the academic ladder. The educational cost per student, therefore, tends to be greater in institutions with...

...College is one of the better investments a person can make to enhance their life. Attending college sets you in the right direction to become a successful individual in the future. Yes, college takes time, and a great deal of money, but in the end it is all worth it. People who graduate from college are more likely to obtain a high end paying job than a person with just a high school education. The cost of attending college may be expensive, but, the outcome of it all is worth the wait.
The most expensive part of attending college would be the tuition. However, tuition is not the same for all colleges. At larger colleges of course, the tuition is higher compared to smaller colleges. For instance, to go to a large college such as Rutgers University, one semester would cost a full time student around five thousand dollars. To go to New Jersey City University, which is a much smaller school, one semester would cost about four thousand dollars. Being a student at New Jersey City University, I know it is a big deference in tuition. The tuition you pay to attend college no matter where you go is used to finance your education.
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...The cost of college tuition and fees has surged 1,120 percent since records began in 1978.(Ferguson) Soaring tuition and shrinking incomes are making college less and less affordable for people. For millions of young people, rising collegecosts are putting the American dream on hold, or out of reach. Colleges are always being supported by everyone and have said that it is the best option if want a new job or career. It is getting harder and harder to get into a great college, and high school graduates are getting stuck in low wage jobs and saving money up for school and taking twice the time to finish their schooling on their way into a new career.
The cost of tuition has nearly doubled since the new millenium and is not stopping yet. Students are racking up on loans and aren't being able to afford a 4-year state college even though they have worked all summer and are working part time during the semester to pay for everything. The economy is still very shaky so it's harder on your parents to help you out with the situation at hand. Because of this, two out of three undergrads are coming out of college with debt.
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...﻿Mackenzie Raske
Xavier Pastrano
ENGL 101T 14
College: Is it Worth It?
Almost everybody’s plan after high school is to go to college, find a job, fall in love, get married, and own a home. All of these are attainable with a good paying job and sometimes even a college education. In this research paper I will be discussing these topics, increasing cost of college, affording college, finding employment after college, and weather or not graduates are able to pay off their debt.
The consequence of not going to college is even more fatal than paying for it. Not going to college makes it harder to find a job and harder to make money to support a family. So either way they give you no choice but to either go to college, get into debt, or find a job making the minimum of fifteen thousand dollars a year. I feel that college does extend your knowledge and gives you a better chance of getting a job in your career of choice. If you have the mindset, the wisdom, and the ability to think outside the box, you may want to think about your decision to further your education and get a degree from a college or university. College sets you up with a foundation of education that helps you in the working world, but it doesn’t guarantee you anything except a degree or a major. According to Renee Haltom she states...